Alexander Pushkin

A Nightingale and a Rose

A Nightingale and a Rose - meaning Summary

Song Met by Silence

The poem depicts a nightingale singing to a rose in a misty spring garden while the rose remains indifferent. The speaker rebukes the bird, asking why it pours out passionate song for something that does not hear or reciprocate. The scene compresses themes of unrequited devotion and the artist’s yearning: beauty or beloved can be mute toward praise, and fervent expression may meet calm indifference rather than response.

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In gardens’ muteness, in spring, in the nights’ mist, Over a rose sings the nightingale of East. But doesn’t feel anything nor hear this charming rose, And to the loving hymn just swings and calmly dozes. Not in this way you sing for beauty, cold and hard? Come to your senses, bard, where do you stream your heart? She does not hear nor feel the poet’s soul, fervent; You look – she is in bloom, you call – the answer’s absent. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver

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